As Data Aggregators/Networks do not distribute their data to every citation site, if you submit or update your data with them, you can expect to clean up many data errors — but not all of them. Some sites will, therefore, need to be updated manually.
Directories may also purchase data from the Data Aggregators/Networks, but they won't necessarily update the business data they display in the following circumstances:
1) The business listing is already claimed / verified by the business
If a business listing on a citation site has already been claimed or verified by the business owner, the citation site may 'lock' that listing. This means it isn't updated by data bought from other sources, such as Data Aggregators/Networks.
2) The citation site trusts other data sources more than Data Aggregators/Networks
Citation sites often lease, buy, or scrape data from many sources in an attempt to get the fullest set of business data for as many businesses as possible.
They assign trust levels to the different data sources, meaning that if two different sources provide data for the same business, they will ignore one in favor of the more trusted source.
So, if the site trusts other sources more than the Data Aggregator/Network, they may not use the Data Aggregator/Network's data.
Combining manual submissions with Data Aggregators/Networks
Since citation sites usually place most trust in listings that have been claimed / verified by the business owner, it's important that businesses claim their listings on the most important citation sites — and on sites they can't update through the Data Aggregators/Networks.
As a result, we advise customers to take a dual approach with their Citation Builder campaigns, as follows:
1) Submit data to Data Aggregators/Networks to get data updated at source, and pushed out to a wide set of sites.
2) Manually submit and claim listings on the most important 25-50 sites, so they control their listings on these sites, and can guarantee the accuracy of data.
Check out this BrightLocal post to discover more: Manual Submissions vs. Aggregator Submissions: What’s the Best Approach?